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Milla Koistinen & Dance On Ensemble SWEAT (anthem)

SWEAT (anthem) explores resilience, endurance, and collective strength turning exhaustion into defiance and joy. Investigating the languages of sport and art, it honours vulnerability, persistence and the power of a multigenerational ensemble.

SWEAT (anthem) moves through the terrains of resilience and endurance where determination and persistence become a quiet form of protest.

Endurance is not only stamina and sustained effort, it is also a radical gesture to stay alive, alert and hopeful amidst fatigue, fracture and exhaustion. Between tension, release and play, the performance celebrates the courage to keep dancing and turn exhaustion into a collective rhythm; an anthem of defiance and joy.

Following GRIT (for what it’s worth), the work continues to explore the languages of sport and dance and how resilience and the demands made on the body and performer intersect with culture and societal events.

SWEAT (anthem) highlights the tension between vulnerability and strength, singular ambition and collectivity, asking how to persevere, remain emphatic and keep moving in times of unrest.

Created with the Dance On Ensemble and four emerging dancers, the performance pays tribute to the ensemble’s long, compelling careers and the combined strength of a multigenerational collective.

Milla Koistinen & Dance On Ensemble

Concept, choreography and direction: Milla Koistinen


Creation and performance: Ty Boomershine, Gesine Moog, Alba Barrel Fernández, Javier Arozena, Tim Persent (Dance On Ensemble) and Jin Lee, Emma Sofie Gautestad, Raul Aranha, Victor Aaron Bolzmann, Milla Koistinen


Sound design: Paul Valikoski and Grégoire Simon


Light design: Martin Beeretz
Dramaturgy: Synne Behrndt


Costumes: Jin Lee and Jihun Choi


Production Director: Anastasia Luck (Dance On Ensemble) and Jana Lüthje (M.i.C.A.)

Production: DANCE ON / Bureau Ritter

Co-Funded by the Europeans Union’s Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation in the frame of DanceMap.

Co-production: Milla Koistinen, SPRING Performing Arts Festival (The Netherlands), Tanzfabrik Berlin BÜHNE

Supported by Bora Bora Residency Centre, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Finnland-Institut.

With thanks to Dance House Helsinki and the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux. 

DANCE ON is a project by BUREAU RITTER gUG, funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.